title: Dewetting-induced membrane formation by adhesion of amphiphile-laden interfaces.
abstract: We introduce an approach for forming bilayer polymer membranes by adhesion of amphiphile-laden interfaces. This adhesion is induced by a reduction of solvent quality for the amphiphilic diblock copolymers through selective evaporation of good solvent in the solvent mixture. By combining this membrane formation mechanism with a double-emulsion-templated approach for vesicle formation, we fabricate monodisperse polymersomes that exhibit excellent membrane uniformity, and structural stability, using a method that has high encapsulation efficiency. Moreover, we also show that the technique is versatile and can be applied to different block copolymers. The ability to direct the assembly of amphiphiles into a membrane creates new opportunities to engineer the structures of vesicles on the level of the individual bilayer leaflets.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Ho Cheung
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Shum
authors.forename: Enric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Santanach-Carreras
authors.forename: Jin-Woong
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Allen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ehrlicher
authors.forename: Jerome
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bibette
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Weitz
mesh_terms: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D010316:Particle Size; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011108:Polymers